Come Home
by QueenOfCrazy
Summary: This is Prim's story. Her suffering as she watches her sister fight for something many took for granted: The right to live.


I was scared. Katniss had done so much to protect me but it still wasn't enough. There was still a chance that they would take me. But even if my name was pulled out of those thousands, I wouldn't be going to the Capitol, I wouldn't be a tribute in the Hunger Games, I knew Katniss would never let that happen to me. She's the best sister any one could ever ask for. We were walking to the square. Katniss held my hand the whole way. She would be at the front with the older kids, I would be at the back.

My first reaping.

How could I be expected to endure five more of these? This hell, this torture of thinking the unthinkable could happen to me or my sister.

I stood there and endured through all the speeches and such then Effie Trinket says, "Ladies first!"

She reaches and pulls out a name. Everything froze when she said the name.

I couldn't believe it. The chances were so tiny that it didn't even cross my mind...

The name they called belonged to me.

Primrose Everdeen.

I gasped for air but it did not come. I stepped forward.

"Prim! Prim!" Katniss screams.

The other kids make way for her and she approaches the stage and me. She gracefully moves her arm and pushes me behind her.

No, don't. I want to say but I can't. I know what she is going to do. My eyes quickly flicker to Gale, who has stepped forward.

"I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!" Katniss shouted.  
Gale looks as desperate as me. Everything after that blurred together. I didn't...I couldn't...nothing was working in me. I couldn't hear, I couldn't breathe. Everything was coming crashing down. Katniss couldn't go. We needed her. I needed her. Mom needed her. Gale needed her. We all did and now she was going to be taken and killed and there was nothing I could do about. I loved her with all my heart because she is my big sister and now I will watch her die simply because the Capitol says either she dies or I die and she won't let that happen.

I know that I can never speak these words aloud because the Peacekeepers might hurt me or mom or even Katniss but now Katniss won't be a factor in my life or anyone's. She will be killed in the Hunger Games and then she will be forgotten. She will not even be remembered. No one is. A dead tribute means nothing to anyone but their family.  
I wrap my arms around her and shout. "No, Katniss, no! You can't go!"

"Prim, let go." She says. Her voice is harsh and pained. She won't show it but she is scared. She will never let anyone see her be scared. Not me, not mom, not Gale and definitely not the rest of Panem.

Gale grabs me and lifts me off the ground. "Up you go, Catnip." He says.

He is in just as much pain as I am. He will lose her too.

No, I cannot think that way. If anyone in all of Panem could survive the Hunger Games, it was Katniss. She was strong and brave and loyal. She could hunt, she could kill and she would do anything to come home to me if I asked her too.

I don't pay attention to the rest of the reaping. I do notice how much pain shows on my sisters face as the boy tribute, Peeta Mellark, is chosen. Is there something there? Something between them? If there was, wouldn't Katniss tell me? She could tell me anything and I would not judge. Is there something? Something that I didn't pick up until this moment, when they were condemned to kill each other or risk never seeing their families again. If there was any emotion for him in Katniss's eyes, it was gone now. Because I knew my sister. I knew her well. If she had to choose between the world and me, she would choose me, because she loves me. I'm not sure if there is anyone else that she loves left. When dad died, she was so sad it hurt me. He was gone and mom was broken. Not the kind you can fix with a bandage but the kind that is perminant and forever. Katniss has kept us alive since then. She has hunted even though it could killed. She has signed up for tesserae even though it could result in what I had just witnessed.

She would survive and she would find a way to throw it in the face of the Capitol because she was brave and if anyone could stand up to them, it was her. I trusted her to come home to me and to mom and to Gale because if I believed any different for even a second, I would be so hurt that I would fall down and never ever get up again.

Katniss would come home. She had too. Because I didn't know what I would do if she were gone.

I mouthed the words but I know she didn't see them, I would have time to tell her later,

_Come home._

Come home, Katniss, come home.


End file.
